Job opening of the day...? Week...? Month...? Year...?

wouldn't have believed it if i hadn't seen it with my own two eyes...

(i'm not identifying the organization because 1), it happens to be one i actually respect and 2), they don't deserve the ridicule... (or maybe they do...)

Celebrity Relationship Manager

[Organization X] is developing a celebrity engagement program to raise our profile and boost fundraising efforts, primarily in the US and UK. This program aims to build donor loyalty, attract new donors, increase unrestricted donations, and build an understanding of [Organization X's] unique work and brand. The celebrity engagement program will reside in the agency’s Resource Development department, which is responsible for private fundraising, marketing and communications.

GENERAL POSITION SUMMARY:

The Celebrity Relationship Manager (CRM) implements [Organization X's] celebrity engagement strategy to raise the agency’s profile and boost fundraising efforts. This work will include developing and nurturing a small group of celebrity “ambassadors” who are engaged on specific campaigns or issues, coordinating celebrity participation in a diverse Board of Advisors, and ultimately overseeing celebrity involvement in corporate cause marketing relationships. The CRM will work across RD teams – including communications, internet marketing, marketing, and major and mid-level gifts – to most productively leverage celebrity relationships. The CRM will report to the ... director of communications.

great jumping jeebus... they've even hatched an acronym - CRM - to describe the position... i developed a headache just WRITING this post...

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What happens when we shit on Mother Nature

mother nature shits back...


Aerial photo taken shows ruptured wall


Villager checks his yard flooded by toxic mud


Rescue workers clear up toxic sludge

An aerial photo taken, Oct. 5, 2010 shows the ruptured wall of a red sludge reservoir of the Ajkai Timfoldgyar aluminum plant in Kolontar, Hungary. The sludge, a waste product in aluminum production, contains heavy metals and is toxic if ingested. A third person has died in flooding caused by the rupture. Six people were missing and 120 injured in what officials said was an ecological disaster. The government declared a state of emergency in three counties affected by the flooding.

truly horrifying and, if not contained or dealt with rapidly and effectively, could mean an even broader environmental catastrophe...

In Brussels, the European Union said it feared the toxic flood could turn into an ecological disaster for half a dozen European nations — those downriver from Hungary along the mighty Danube — and said it stood ready to offer help.

"This is a serious environmental problem," EU spokesman Joe Hennon told The Associated Press. "We are concerned, not just for the environment in Hungary, but this could potentially cross borders."

it's time we realized that our callous disregard for the planet we all share has consequences...

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Dismantling the permanent war economy and the corporate state

the first step is admitting that we have a problem...

tom engelhardt...

[T]he present Pentagon and military cast of characters can’t stop themselves. They really can’t. The thought that in Afghanistan or anywhere else they might have to go on a diet, as sooner or later they will, is deeply unnerving. Forever war is in their blood, so much so that they’re ready to face down the commander-in-chief, if necessary, to make it continue. This is really the definition of an addiction -- not to victory, but to the state of war itself. Don’t expect them to discipline themselves. They won’t.

personally, i think the pentagon, as guilty as our military leaders are of desiring - and fomenting - permanent war, is only a small part of the problem... behind those people is a quiet, nearly invisible group of super-rich elites who have hard-wired themselves into accruing as much power and latching on to as much money as possible and are quite clear that endless war is a great way of fulfilling both of those goals...

chris hedges, as usual, spells things out pretty well...

The forces assaulting the remnants of American democracy will not be cowed or discredited with rallies, such as the one in Washington on Saturday. We will blunt these rising anti-democratic forces only when we organize outside conventional systems of power. It means dismantling the permanent war economy and the corporate state. It means an end to foreclosures and bank repossessions. It means a functional health care system for all Americans. It means taking care of our poor and unemployed. And it means a system of government that is freed from corporate interests.

we - and when i say "we" i am not just referring to the people in the u.s. - are in shit up to our necks... speaking for myself, the more i understand of exactly how things are coming down in this latter half of the year 2010, the more i am convinced that our - and, again, when i say "our", i am not just referring to the u.s. - system is seriously off the rails... the reality is that it didn't start with the bush era and it's not going to be solved by obama or anyone else that we would like to anoint as our savior...
again, chris hedges...

This has left traditional political parties, which once represented differing class interests, with nothing to offer the public beyond fringe issues such as abortion or gay marriage. Those in the liberal class who cling to the corpse of the Democratic Party do so not because they believe in the policies of the party—it does not differ in any significant way from the Republican Party—but because they hope against hope that the party will somehow restore itself to its former position as a defender of liberal values and the working class interests.

[...]

No rally, no positive message, no effort to expose the idiocies of those arrayed against us will work until we restore to the political process mechanisms by which ordinary citizens can be heard.

i am writing this in the san francisco airport... i took a taxi to the reno airport very early this morning and had an interesting chat with the driver... he's about the same age as my oldest son - 40 - and grew up in the area... as i've found with so many taxi drivers around the world, he's reasonably savvy about current events... he exhibited a healthy curiosity about my work and my travels and was particularly interested in afghanistan... it was clear from listening to him talk, however, that he considers himself largely disenfranchised with little to no possibility of making an impact on his country or the world...

we're supposed to be living in a citizen democracy, government "by the people, for the people," blah, blah, blah... nobody really wants to admit that our system is a failure but, deep down inside, i think everybody knows it... it's definitely time for step one...

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Heading back to the southern hemisphere

it's been unusually hot with equally unusual calm winds and positively gorgeous for the past two weeks here in the high desert, but saturday put a stop to all that... it's been raining off and on since then and considerably cooler... all in all, more seasonable... a good time to head back south to an argentine springtime...! i can't wait to see the jacaranda in bloom...! i'll try to get it together to post some good photos...

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More on our police state

paul craig roberts interviewed on russia today...

The FBI raided the homes of a number of anti-war activists in Chicago and Minneapolis. The Activists are planning demonstrations against the FBI. Is this a sign of a growing American police state? Former Reagan official Paul Craig Roberts argued that the US government is establishing in the mind of the public that anyone who criticizes the War on Terror is aligned with terrorists. He further argued that under the rubric of terror the government has stripped American's of their civil liberties.

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Our handlers seem particularly determined to keep us cowering under our sheets

be afwaid, be vewy afwaid...

The U.S. State Department issued an alert on Sunday urging Americans traveling to Europe to be vigilant about possible terrorist attacks in a statement that specifically cites the potential involvement of Al Qaida. The British government, meanwhile, raised the threat of terrorism to "high" from "general" for Britons in France and Germany.

[...]

The U.S. travel alert urges extra caution and does not discourage Americans from visiting Europe. An American official who confirmed the warning on Saturday, who did not want to be identified speaking about internal government deliberations, said a stronger “travel warning” that might advise Americans not to visit Europe was not under consideration. European officials have been concerned about the impact on tourism and student travel from any official guidance to American travelers.

i'm starting to get that old feeling left over from the bush years that i should constantly be checking under my bed for terrorists...

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Will the bankster, super-rich, elite rape and plunder of the U.S. never cease...?

more on how the banksters are feathering their nests at the expense of homeowners...

With foreclosure looming and powerless to do little else, troubled homeowners trying to hang onto their home are being advised to just stay in their homes despite foreclosure proceedings.

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You have virtually no rights as a homeowner

alan grayson...

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Remember, the fear must be sustained if the resources are to flow

i signed off the previous post with my own solid advice - "don't give in to the fearmongers"... not more than an hour later, i'm faced with former intelligence director, currently a booz allen defense contractor vp and ace fear-monger mike mcconnell shoveling it out as fast as he can...

Speaking at the Washington Ideas Forum at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., former Director of National Intelligence and Director of the National Security Agency Mike McConnell said that the U.S. is unprepared for a cyberattack and must overhaul its defenses.

"The warnings are over. It could happen tomorrow," he said of a large-scale cyberattack against the U.S., which could impact the global economy "an order of magnitude surpassing" the attacks of September 11. McConnell, in a panel with Bush administration Homeland Security Adviser Fran Townsend and Washingtonian reporter Shane Harris, called cybersecurity "the wolf at the door."

McConnell and Townsend both argued that the U.S. should overhaul how it defends against cyberattacks. Townsend warned that U.S. intelligence and security agencies lack the organizational ability and authorization to prevent and respond to cybersecurity threats.

never mind that mcconnell and booz have gazillions of dollars at stake based on how much fear they can stoke in the administration, congress and the american public... never mind that the atlantic can't be bothered to identify mcconnell in his current role as a senior vp at booz allen... the message is all about fear...

could a sophisticated cyber weapon like the stuxnet worm be developed, directed at the u.s. internet infrastructure and possibly shut it down...? why, sure... i don't doubt that it's a possibility... but, fercryinoutloud, is it necessary for someone like mcconnell to pop up every six months with his patented chicken little routine, particularly when our esteemed news media aren't even interested in giving us the rest of the story...?

fortunately, a commenter writing in the uk guardian hasn't taken leave of his senses...

There is now an extensive police and industrial lobby in Britain dependent for its resources on maintaining a high level of public fear. The lobby thrives on its own failures. The incidents in America on 9/11 (2001) and in London on 7/7 (2005) saw the greatest ever peacetime growth in spending on security. Unlike most forms of public spending, this one could by its nature demand cash with menaces and with no account of value for money.

The fear must be sustained if the resources are to flow.

as in britain, as in the us - as always, follow the money...

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A terrorist is tried in NYC... Say what...?

marcy - emptywheel - wheeler...

[A]s Bob Schacht pointed out, not that anybody would know it, but there has been a terror trial going on all week in a real live Article III courtroom in the heart of Manhattan. Exactly like all the Republicans with vapors and trembling Democrats said could not be safely done.

from human rights first...

Despite repeated warnings that trying Guantanamo detainees in New York would result in chaos, mayhem, kidnappings, astronomical security costs, a police take-over of Lower Manhattan, snarled traffic, street closures, and “utter, unmitigated disaster,” New Yorkers interviewed by Human Rights First are going about their daily business within blocks of the federal terrorism trial of a former Guantanamo detainee.

In an exclusive video released today, the group reveals that many New Yorkers are not only failing to fear, they do not even realize that accused terrorist Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani’s trial is underway. Some, despite the urgent warnings from those trying to “Keep America Safe,” even expressed pride that the prosecution was happening in New York City.

“We have trials like that here all of the time,” one woman observed as Human Rights First correspondent Reagan Kuhn interviewed her near the federal courthouse in Foley Square.

Despite the best efforts of Liz Cheney, Deborah Burlingame, Rudy Guiliani, and Karl Rove to spread panic, many naïve New Yorkers seemed completely uninformed about the chaos that was supposed to reign. Some even observed that “everything seems pretty normal,” “I haven’t noticed anything,” and “I’m sure everybody knows what they are doing.”.

all of the cravenly manipulative exhortations demanding that we live in endless, paralyzing fear are clearly aimed at one thing and one thing only - allowing those in power to exert more control over our minds and our lives... marcy offers a nice closing paragraph...

They have been holding terrorism trials of the highest order for years in New York City. SDNY is where the Blind Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman was tried for the first World Trade Center Attack. There is not a better secured and more appropriate place in america to try the 9/11 terrorism suspects. That is what we do in America, and what we do as Americans. Giving in to the fear and bed wetting of the Cheneys, Rudy Guiliani, Lindsey Graham, Lieberman and others of their ilk is giving up on our principles and giving in to the terrorists themselves. Besides, NYC is always a target of terrorists and would be even if Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the other four 9/11 suspects were tried in Gitmo.

Put the trials where the crimes happened and deal with it.

don't give in to the fearmongers...

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The MQ9 Reaper, a hunter-killer UAV

MQ-9 Reaper

the reaper is the latest generation of unmanned aerial drones we're using to wreak destruction across vast stretches of afghanistan and pakistan and is undoubtedly one of the reasons pakistan has decided to block the nato supply route over the khyber pass in retaliation for u.s. attacks on pakistani soil...

wikipedia...

The General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper (originally the Predator B) is an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) for use by the United States Air Force, the United States Navy, the Royal Air Force, and the Italian Air Force. The MQ-9 and other UAVs are referred to as Remotely Piloted Vehicles/Aircraft (RPV/RPA) by the U.S. Air Force to indicate their human ground controllers.^[3][4] The MQ-9 is the first hunter-killer UAV designed for long-endurance, high-altitude surveillance.^[3]

The MQ-9 is a larger and more capable aircraft than the earlier MQ-1 Predator, although it can be controlled by the same ground systems used to control MQ-1s. The Reaper has a 950-shaft-horsepower (712 kW) turboprop engine, far more powerful than the Predator's 115 hp (86 kW) piston engine. The increase in power allows the Reaper to carry 15 times more ordnance and cruise at three times the speed of the MQ-1.^[3] Although the MQ-9 can fly pre-programmed routes autonomously, the aircraft is always monitored or controlled by aircrew in the Ground Control Station (GCS) and weapons employment is always commanded by the pilot.

i just received an email from a friend who camped across from me last summer announcing that he is now fully-qualified on the reaper and will begin operational missions tonight... i enjoyed getting to know him and his family despite the vast chasm between his liberal-hating, hard-ass, neo-con mindset and mine... he provides me with occasional updates and a window into a world that i wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity to see...

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How to report a human rights violator to the U.S. Department of Justice

glenn helpfully points us to the doj website where such violators can be reported and suggests that there are a number of such violators on u.s. soil that concerned, patriotic u.s. citizens might consider handing over to our esteemed justice system...

gee, i dunno... how about john yoo and jay bybee for starters...?

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Michael Moore offers 5 ways the Dems can pull their heads out of their collective asses

wouldn't you love it if they actually did this...? 'course there's not a snowball's chance in hell they will...

michael moore...

Memo To: President Obama and the Democratic Party Leadership

From: Michael Moore

Subject: 5 Things Dems Can Do to Turn It Around by November 2nd

1. Immediate Wall-to-Wall TV Ads, Internet Videos, and Appearances Hammering Who the Hell Put Us in the Misery We're In.
We Americans have very short attention spans (Quick: Who Won the Oscar for Best Picture last year? The World Series? Exactly.). People need to be reminded over and over that it was the REPUBLICANS who concocted and led the unnecessary invasion of two countries, putting us in our longest war ever, wars that will eventually cost us over $3 trillion. Bush and Co. also caused the biggest collapse of our economy since the Great Depression. I don't know a single person in Hollywood who wouldn't shoot and produce those spots for you for FREE. Dems: Do not pull a single punch on this. Quit being a bunch of wusses and let the bastards have it! The public will be astonished that you've found your courage and your spine. We expect you to be Muhammad Ali, not Ally McBeal.

2. Indict the Criminals.
Announce that the Justice Department will seek indictments against both those who caused the economic collapse and those who became war profiteers. Call it for what it is: organized crime. Use the RICO statutes. Use the basic laws that make fraud of any kind a crime. Get in the face of those who stole the billions, make them pay for it -- and the people will love you. We want Dirty Harry, not Dirty Dancing.

3. Announce a Moratorium on All Family Home Foreclosures.
Last month (August) there were more home foreclosures than in any month in U.S. history. Worse than any month in the worst year ever, 2009. The bleeding hasn't stopped -- it's only gotten worse. And now, this week, two of the largest crime organizations who are throwing hundreds of thousands of people out of their homes (GMAC and JPMorgan Chase) have been forced to momentarily stop doing this. It turns out, they don't really have the paperwork to prove they actually own these houses! It's madness. So if you do one thing for the middle class this week, do this. It will take an hour of your time to draw up the decree and issue it. We'd rather watch "It's a Wonderful Life" than "Poltergeist."

4. Announce a New 21st Century WPA.
"Who's hiring? THE GOVERNMENT IS HIRING!" Put together a simple plan to hire enough people to repair our roads, fix up our aging schools, and rebuild our infrastructure. Fund this by taxing the richest 1% who have more financial wealth than 95% of Americans combined! Unemployment will drop to 5%. Can you pass it? Well, you sure can't unless you try! And as you're trying, announce that you will force the Republican senators (who until now simply have had to say they "intended" to filibuster in order to kill a bill) to have to actually filibuster! Make them stand on the floor of the Senate and read from the phone book 24/7. They won't last a day. And America will see them for who they really are.

5. Declare That No Democrat Will Accept ANY Wall Street Money in the Next Election Cycle.
Pick a day in the coming week. Have all your fellow Democrats in Congress stand in front of the Capitol (with President Obama) and pledge that if America allows you to retain control of Congress, none of you will take a penny from Wall Street for the 2012 election. Instead, promise to accept donations of only $2, $5 and $10. You will also pledge not to take a job as a lobbyist or lawyer for ANY corporation for ten years after you leave Congress. The message will be a powerful one to the average American fed up with corrupt political hacks. Act like Honest Abe, not Fast Freddie -- and see what happens.

mostly because i would rather die than see the asylum inmate on unsupervised leave, sharron angle, become my next u.s. senator, i went to the voter registration office on wednesday to sign up for absentee voting by email... so, yes, i will undoubtedly be voting for harry reid and, god help us, how pathetic is THAT...?

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